Analytica Chimica Acta 410 (2000) 153–157 Chemiluminometric behaviour of erythromycin and related compounds Anastassia Mitsana-Papazoglou, Argyro Fragaki, Paraskevi Chamosfakidi, Antony C. Calokerinos ∗ Laboratory of Analytical Chemistry, Department of Chemistry, University of Athens, Panepistimiopolis 157 71 Athens, Greece Received 22 September 1999; accepted 26 October 1999 Abstract This paper reports the chemiluminescence generated from erythromycin and other macrolide antibiotics by the action of cerium(IV) in perchloric acid or potassium permanganate in sulphuric acid or polyphosphoric acid with limits of detection (3 × noise) for erythromycin in the range 0.15–0.31 g ml −1 . Permanganate in polyphosphoric acid gives the greatest sen- sitivity. A preliminary investigation of the reaction mechanism is also presented. ©2000 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved. Keywords: Chemiluminescence; Erythromycin; Macrolid antibiotics; Cerium(IV); Potassium permanganate 1. Introduction Erythromycin (Table 1) is the best known macrolide antibiotic. A variety of derivatives such as ery- thromycin estolate and erythromycin lactobionate (Table 1) are also used for pharmaceutical purposes. Erythromycin and its esters can be determined spec- trophotometrically after addition of gentian violet (2.5–25 g ml −1 ) [1] or by the action of iron(III) in acidic solution (limit of detection (l.o.d.) 5 g ml −1 ) [2]. Mixtures of erythromycin with its metabolites can be separated by liquid chromatography (LC) and detected by UV absorption [3], amperometri- cally [4] or by mass spectrometry [5]. Separation can also be achieved by capillary electrophoresis [6]. Erythromycin can be determined fluorimetrically after formation of an ion pair with erythrosine B ∗ Corresponding author. Tel.: +30-1-727-4316; Fax: +30-1-984-3596. E-mail address: calokerinos@chem.uoa.gr (A.C. Calokerinos) (l.o.d. 0.68 g ml −1 ) [7] or by pre-column derivati- sation with 9-fluorenylmethyloxycarbonyl chloride (0.32–16.1 g ml −1 ) [8]. Chemiluminescence (CL) has been proposed for the determination of erythromycin by reaction with tris(bipyridine)ruthenium(III) (3–24 g ml −1 ) [9]. The reaction of the erythromycin derivative EM 523 with tris(2,2 ′ -bipyridyl)ruthenium(II) and per- oxodisulfate has been used for the determination of the compound in plasma (1–100 ng ml −1 ) and urine (10–1000 ng ml −1 ) after LC separation [10]. Tris(2,2 ′ -bipyridyl)ruthenium(II) has also been used for the electrogenerated CL measurement of ery- thromycin in urine and plasma with l.o.d. values of 0.05 and 0.1 M, respectively, after separation by LC [11]. The macrolide antibiotic FK 506 has been determined by CL in the range 5 ng ml −1 to 1 g ml −1 after derivatisation with dansyl hydralazine and chemi-excitation of the fluorescent product by the TCPO–H 2 O 2 reaction after separation by LC [12]. 0003-2670/00/$ – see front matter ©2000 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved. PII:S0003-2670(99)00864-8